Politics is really quite simple. The first thing that should be understood is there are plenty of corrupt politicians in both parties more than willing to sell themselves to the special interests that help them get elected and remain in office. Those folks are really all the same no matter what the party label. So the best way to differentiate between the two parties is to identify who they generally represent. Republicans represent the productive. Democrats represent the parasites.
Democrats understand it is basic human nature that the have nots will always want what the haves have. That is why they always make elections all about the politics of envy. As usual for Democrats, Barack Obama's reelection strategy is to promise to give the have nots what they want without having to work for it by taking it from the haves. This is the strategy of class warfare, and it states that the have nots deserve to be given what they didn't earn because the haves are evil, selfish beings who must be punished for their greed.
In other words, Democrats claim they are the party of compassion for the underprivileged and that Republicans are cold-hearted monsters who conspire to gain and keep all the wealth for themselves. That is a crock of shit, but people who vote for Democrats apparently believe the lie. The truth is that conservatives agree that society certainly has a responsibility to provide a safety net for those who truly need it. But that safety net must be designed to encourage recipients of public support to work towards escaping that status by seeking opportunities to do so rather than spending their lives at the bottom of the barrel.
Unfortunately, the safety net in America today is so generous that it encourages recipients to remain dependent on government support rather than providing strong incentives for self-improvement. Democrats win votes by promising to maintain and expand the current structure of government support by extorting those who pay for it with even higher taxes. Hence, their appeal to the parasites. It does not matter one bit that biting the hand that feeds you is a prescription for running out of food, nor that no matter how high taxes are raised on the productive the amount of money available for government programs will never be enough.
A government that encourages the productive creates an environment of innovation, sustained progress, rising living standards and widely diffused affluence, often referred to as a rising tide that lifts all boats. It results in a system that expands the economic pie to everyone's benefit. It is also a system that leads to relatively high levels of income inequality. There is no doubt that many people who have attained great wealth do not deserve it. Wall Street bankers should feel guilty, but I am sure they don't. But that is not the real issue. The real issue is the improvement in living standards that productive enterprise creates for everyone, including those at the very bottom of the social and income ladder. The poor in America today, with big screen HD TV's, the latest cell phones and access to food stamps and health care live much better than they did fifty years ago, and better than most people in the rest of the world.
On the other hand, a government that panders to the parasites leads to an economy that produces nothing but widespread destitution, chaos and anarchy, leading to dictatorship, subjugation and oppression. This is a system that sinks all the boats and where everyone has to desperately fight for a piece of the shrinking pie. Reelection of Barack Obama, the most blatant parasite panderer this country has ever seen, will turn America into the Titanic and leave nothing but crumbs from the devoured pie. We are at the inflection point where nearly half the people in this country pay no taxes, and therefore are parasites receiving public services and support that others pay for. Four more years of Obama would send us over the edge. Everyone needs to think long and hard before they vote this November.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Saturday, April 21, 2012
It Is Time!
The firestorm created by the shooting of Trayvon Martin in Florida by a neighborhood watch volunteer is a prime example of the difficulties we face as a coherent, unified nation. The politically correct politicians and journalists created a hysterical reaction to the event before the facts were even known. They have committed a great disservice to the country by creating a racial conflagration that is not justified no matter what really happened. It is time for journalists and politicians to stop fanning the flames of polarization.
It is time for everyone in America to think for themselves, wake up and smell the coffee. It is time for Latinos to realize they are in the United States of America, not Northern Mexico, and to stop supporting those who come to this country illegally and consume our resources. They need to get more involved in politics, and adapt to the American culture, laws, language and educational system. Most of those who have been here for several generations have already done so, and their influence is growing as it should. They must help the newer legal arrivals to integrate into our society as well.
It is time for Asian-Americans to come out of their familial rabbit holes and intermingle with the rest of the American people. Asians don't seem to hate anybody even though they remain on the fringes of society by their own choice, focusing on making sure their children excel in academics. Promoting intellectual achievement is certainly a good thing, but it wouldn't hurt for them to get out and hang out with the rest of us a bit more.
It is past time for African-Americans to stop their ingrained hatred of whites. They need to throw off the yoke of low expectations and dependency, blame themselves now and then for the crime, victimization and welfare centric attitudes rampant in their community, stop listening to the pandering of politicians who never improve their situation, and reach out to take advantage of the opportunities America offers to all its citizens. A great many African-Americans have already taken advantage of those opportunities and become great leaders in business, politics, education, medicine and military endeavors. They should be the ones serving as role models to young blacks, not rappers, gangbangers or Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.
Multiculturalism is a wonderful thing as long as it does not dominate the over-riding national culture. We are all Americans and we are in this together. The intermingling of the different races has progressed exponentially over the last several decades, but obviously there is still a ways to go. There will always be a very small minority of dimwitted bigots running around, but the fact is the vast majority of white people have evolved to a post-racial, inclusive society. Despite the tired old rhetoric of the Jesse Jackson's and Al Sharpton's, there is really nothing more white folks can do to change anyone's mind about that. If black people still don't believe it, then they never will no matter how accomodative white's become.
But let's all be honest rather than politically correct. A majority of black people still hate all of the other racial groups in America, particularly the whites. Black's believe they are being racially oppressed, think they are owed something by white America, and refuse to acknowledge any evidence to the contrary. They believe this because the media and liberal politicians continually tell them so. Liberal political policies encourage that sense of entitlement, leaving them dependent on government programs and holding them back from joining and participating in the more affluent world. That is the real oppression, and it is inflicted upon them by the politicians they support.
Of course now I will be called a racist by the knee-jerk reactionaries who don't ever want to hear anything that challenges the politically correct narrative. Certainly the comments I have made here are all generalizations, as many folks from each community have already worked hard and moved up in the world. But there is also a lot of truth to what has been written, and most people know it even if they are afraid to say it. Unfortunately, our society will never become truly integrated until we all recognize those basic truths. It is time for politicians and journalists to dispose of their politically correct attitudes of moral superiority and recognize the real world the rest of us live in.
It is time for everyone in America to think for themselves, wake up and smell the coffee. It is time for Latinos to realize they are in the United States of America, not Northern Mexico, and to stop supporting those who come to this country illegally and consume our resources. They need to get more involved in politics, and adapt to the American culture, laws, language and educational system. Most of those who have been here for several generations have already done so, and their influence is growing as it should. They must help the newer legal arrivals to integrate into our society as well.
It is time for Asian-Americans to come out of their familial rabbit holes and intermingle with the rest of the American people. Asians don't seem to hate anybody even though they remain on the fringes of society by their own choice, focusing on making sure their children excel in academics. Promoting intellectual achievement is certainly a good thing, but it wouldn't hurt for them to get out and hang out with the rest of us a bit more.
It is past time for African-Americans to stop their ingrained hatred of whites. They need to throw off the yoke of low expectations and dependency, blame themselves now and then for the crime, victimization and welfare centric attitudes rampant in their community, stop listening to the pandering of politicians who never improve their situation, and reach out to take advantage of the opportunities America offers to all its citizens. A great many African-Americans have already taken advantage of those opportunities and become great leaders in business, politics, education, medicine and military endeavors. They should be the ones serving as role models to young blacks, not rappers, gangbangers or Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.
Multiculturalism is a wonderful thing as long as it does not dominate the over-riding national culture. We are all Americans and we are in this together. The intermingling of the different races has progressed exponentially over the last several decades, but obviously there is still a ways to go. There will always be a very small minority of dimwitted bigots running around, but the fact is the vast majority of white people have evolved to a post-racial, inclusive society. Despite the tired old rhetoric of the Jesse Jackson's and Al Sharpton's, there is really nothing more white folks can do to change anyone's mind about that. If black people still don't believe it, then they never will no matter how accomodative white's become.
But let's all be honest rather than politically correct. A majority of black people still hate all of the other racial groups in America, particularly the whites. Black's believe they are being racially oppressed, think they are owed something by white America, and refuse to acknowledge any evidence to the contrary. They believe this because the media and liberal politicians continually tell them so. Liberal political policies encourage that sense of entitlement, leaving them dependent on government programs and holding them back from joining and participating in the more affluent world. That is the real oppression, and it is inflicted upon them by the politicians they support.
Of course now I will be called a racist by the knee-jerk reactionaries who don't ever want to hear anything that challenges the politically correct narrative. Certainly the comments I have made here are all generalizations, as many folks from each community have already worked hard and moved up in the world. But there is also a lot of truth to what has been written, and most people know it even if they are afraid to say it. Unfortunately, our society will never become truly integrated until we all recognize those basic truths. It is time for politicians and journalists to dispose of their politically correct attitudes of moral superiority and recognize the real world the rest of us live in.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Bankers Are Not Rock Stars
Personally, I don't understand why anyone thinks any of the types of derivatives that have been created and traded over the last twenty years by Wall Street masterminds are vital to the financial system or markets. The country got along just fine without them for a very long time. Their only reason for being today is to allow traders to make outrageous amounts of money while destroying a nation's financial system.
The root of the problem is that bankers wanted to make rock star, professional athlete and hedge fund manager type money even though conventional banking is the easiest business there is. A traditional bankers job is to lend money to creditworthy entities at higher rates than they pay depositors on checking and savings accounts. Not too tough if one applies a little credit analysis to the borrowers.
But bankers wanted to be able to take higher risks so they could make more money, which is why they lobbied to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act legislated during the Depression of the 1930's. They wanted to be in the same businesses as Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns. Remember that less than five years ago none of those firms were banks. The bankers also wanted to engage in the even higher risk, higher potential return game of proprietary trading of derivatives and other lucrative but pointless securities. They succeeded with the enactment of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999.
Sure enough, less than ten years later the whole system collapsed. Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, Merrill Lynch was acquired by Bank of America, and Bear Stearns was acquired by JPMorgan Chase. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley changed their charters in 2008 to become bank holding companies, primarily so they could participate in the bailout cash being handed out by the government.
My first job after graduation from college in 1971 was in a bank, one that stuck to the basics of attracting deposits, making personal, commercial and industrial loans, and providing trust services. Only the CEO made as much money then as the average bank employee does today. It was not a high paying profession because it didn't need to be.
Banks provide a vital service in the functioning of the financial system, one that must be conducted conservatively. They don't need to be in the investment banking, securities brokerage, insurance or proprietary trading businesses. The Volcker Bill now being debated in Congress would preclude banks from conducting those higher risk businesses, and must be passed so we can all live happily ever after - except maybe the bankers who may not make the six and seven figure compensation packages they ludicrously believe they deserve. If someone's primary goal in life is to make the big bucks playing mindless trading games, then they should seek employment with firms operating in the high risk businesses, not banks. Banks are too important to the efficient operation of the financial system to be gambling with depositors, shareholders, and unfortunately today, taxpayers money.
The root of the problem is that bankers wanted to make rock star, professional athlete and hedge fund manager type money even though conventional banking is the easiest business there is. A traditional bankers job is to lend money to creditworthy entities at higher rates than they pay depositors on checking and savings accounts. Not too tough if one applies a little credit analysis to the borrowers.
But bankers wanted to be able to take higher risks so they could make more money, which is why they lobbied to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act legislated during the Depression of the 1930's. They wanted to be in the same businesses as Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns. Remember that less than five years ago none of those firms were banks. The bankers also wanted to engage in the even higher risk, higher potential return game of proprietary trading of derivatives and other lucrative but pointless securities. They succeeded with the enactment of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999.
Sure enough, less than ten years later the whole system collapsed. Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, Merrill Lynch was acquired by Bank of America, and Bear Stearns was acquired by JPMorgan Chase. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley changed their charters in 2008 to become bank holding companies, primarily so they could participate in the bailout cash being handed out by the government.
My first job after graduation from college in 1971 was in a bank, one that stuck to the basics of attracting deposits, making personal, commercial and industrial loans, and providing trust services. Only the CEO made as much money then as the average bank employee does today. It was not a high paying profession because it didn't need to be.
Banks provide a vital service in the functioning of the financial system, one that must be conducted conservatively. They don't need to be in the investment banking, securities brokerage, insurance or proprietary trading businesses. The Volcker Bill now being debated in Congress would preclude banks from conducting those higher risk businesses, and must be passed so we can all live happily ever after - except maybe the bankers who may not make the six and seven figure compensation packages they ludicrously believe they deserve. If someone's primary goal in life is to make the big bucks playing mindless trading games, then they should seek employment with firms operating in the high risk businesses, not banks. Banks are too important to the efficient operation of the financial system to be gambling with depositors, shareholders, and unfortunately today, taxpayers money.
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